THE HUNT IS ON .... JAPAN DOLPHIN KILLING FROM OCTOBER TO APRIL

JAPAN'S DOLPHIN SLAUGHTER IS ON AGAIN - Officials instruct: "Keep out of public view"

The slaughter of dolphins by Japanese fishermen for sale to commercial markets for human and domestic animal consumption resumed this month.

Warned by the Japan Fisheries Agency to "keep dolphin killings out of public view," those conducting the "drive fisheries" at coastal towns once waited until after dark to herd dolphins into shore, trap them in nets and slaughter them, and claimed the dolphins had beached themselves. In October 1999, Japan's Whale and Dolphin Action Network (IKAN), caught a daylight dolphin drive on videotape at the port of Futo. When the tape was shown at the annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission in Adelaide, Australia, last June, the Japanese delegation walked out.

"Japan's dolphin hunt kicked into high gear in 1986, the year the ban on commercial whaling went into effect," said Paul Watson, president of Sea Shepherd International. "Japan is steadily hunting its coastal cetacean populations to extinction. By 1995, a single species -- Dall's porpoise -- was being taken at a rate of 17,000 per year. Hundreds of boats are licensed to kill, and they have severely depleted, in sequence, populations of striped dolphins, pilot whales, beaked whales, and Dall's porpoise."

The crossbow and hand harpoon fishery kills 10,0000-15,000 dolphins and porpoises annually. The drive fisheries, killing 1,000-2,000 dolphins, are driven by the dolphin captivity industry, which pays fishermen up to $30,000 each for a few live dolphins for aquariums and amusement parks, with the rest of the captured pods consigned to slaughter. The hunts take place every year between October and April.

A recent Environmental Investigation Agency report revealed that Japan has killed more than 400,000 dolphins and small cetaceans over the last 20 years.

"There's no control and no enforcement," said Andrew Christie, information director for Sea Shepherd International. "Japan routinely ignores resolutions by the International Whaling Commission to at least reduce the slaughter to the point where its numbers do not threaten the existence of the targeted species. The federal government passes along responsibility for quota enforcement to the local prefectures where the drive hunts take place, and the prefectures

pass responsibility to the fishing cooperatives, which consist of the fishermen who do the killing. They promptly report to the government that they are not killing too many dolphins."

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ACTIONS TO TAKE :

1: Send a fax to Japan Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori: (0) 81-3-5511-8855

2: or send him an e-mail from this website: http://www.iijnet.or.jp/sorifu/kantei/foreign/comment.html

Also send to : ldp@hq.jimin.or.jp Liberal Democratic Party of Japan.

3: Fax the Embassy of Japan in Washington, DC: (202) 265-9482 (in USA).

US citizens:

Convey your support and Thanks to Rep. Bill Delahunt, for introducing the resolution in the House of Representatives calling on President Clinton not to support Japan's bid to gain a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council unless it stops whaling.

Urge him to add language opposing Japan's unsustainable dolphin slaughter.

Congressman Bill Delahunt 1317 Longworth House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 (202) 225-3111 Fax: (202) 225-5658 (in USA) william.delahunt@mail.house.gov

==================================== (INFORMATION SOURCE :) Sea Shepherd International P.O. Box 2616 Friday Harbor, WA 98250 (360) 370-5500 (in USA) http://www.seashepherd.org seashepherd@seashepherd.org

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